Don’t panic!

Tap and Bit set

Over 10 years of working on motorcycles has taught me many, many lessons. The most important of which is not to panic. There are so many inexpensive solutions available to help you fix the myriad of problems you will inevitably encounter that there’s no need to panic and run to a shop that will charge you an arm and a leg to make a repair. There’s something empowering about maintaining your own ride. I love it; but I occasionally encounter a problem like I had last week. After changing my rear brake pads I was tightening the last bolt (the one that secures the caliper to the mount that holds it in place) when it snapped, leaving part of the bolt lodged inside the mounting bracket. What I learned later by searching the discussion boards at Stromtrooper.com was that the bolt is designed to fail when over torqued. This to prevent the bolt from protruding into the brake rotor.

I did the damage on a thursday, the ride was saturday and no local shop had a bracket in stock. I had no choice but to either settle down, roll up my sleeves and figure out how to repair it or cancel the group ride. As it turns out I also had an interview scheduled about the group just prior to the group ride. A potentially embarrassing situation should I show up without a ride.

After removing the rear wheel and the bracket I was able to remove the broken bolt by carefully drilling through it with progressively larger drill bits. The next day I was able to find an 8mm tap that allowed me to create new threads in the damaged hole (this done late in the evening while my girlfriend Cori held a flashlight for me). I found the tap at the local Home Depot along with a replacement bolt. I’ve ordered a replacement bracket but the repair enabled us to ride with our group, make the interview and enjoy the weekend.

If you relax, find the right tools, do your homework and stick to repairs you know are within your skill set you will become more and more proficient and capable and before long you’ll be saving money and time by doing most, if not all, of your own repairs and maintenance.

Be safe.